MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[papahoops]

Nice recap on the Bethel/Auggie game Drake. Like you, am really looking forward to the big final Saturday night. From the beginning, I felt Bethel was the only team in the league with the depth of talent and size to possibly give the Tommies a challenge, and it showed in their last meeting. To handle the Tommies, I feel Bethel needs to limit turnovers (easier said than done) and the bigs must hurt them inside offensively, forcing them to double down and relax their perimeter defense. Based on this, Moberg definitely the key to game, along with the Bethel turnover count. I don't see Bethel winning without a huge game from Moberg. That being said, I'll still take the Tommies at home. As the old saying goes, "defense wins championships".

[Willy Wonka]

Can anyone compare St. Thomas to a team like Wash U or the Wisc schools?

That's is a little hard to do. Just 11 of the 26 wins have come against teams with winning records and the only real "legit" wins are against Bethel, who has no chance of making the Dance without the automatic bid. This is probably the worst the MIAC has been in...20 years? 30 years? Ever?

That said, the Tommies can only beat who's on the schedule and they've done that. Convincingly. We'll know in two weeks how the inferior schedule impacted their national title hopes.

[miacsuperfan]

Repping the other semi-final last night - Bethel 70 - Augsburg 59

I was at the other semi last night & took in a decent, and at times entertaining game between Bethel & Augsburg.  The first half was a tightly contested game & it was obvious the Royals strategy was to pound the ball inside to Big Mike Moberg.  He responded going  4-8 from the field, 2-3 from the Ft line for 10 points, a handful of blocks & boards. Helped with some timely treys by Laugen & Chris Vavra, the Royals were able to maintain a close, but solid lead over the Royals.

Chris Vavra had an excellent game & showed why he was selected CSN’s MIAC 6th man of the year.  In addition to a key trey, he had one of the sweetest right-left–right crossover moves to the basket I’ve seen this year & sent his Augsburg defender hobbling to the bench to get some ice for his badly sprained ankle.  In the second half Vavra was solid defensively. Although I believe he only scored a couple of points from the FT line, he kept several critical possessions alive with his hustle, & ran down several key offensive rebounds in the closing minutes of the game.   

The other good humor of the night was the 5-6 umbrellas in the Bethel student section which they would open up when one of the Royal would “rain” a triple. And I should add Augsburg's Cory Polta who was wide right on his only FT attempt & drew nothing but air. His form looked good though.

Augsburg’s Nate Alm & Jon Cassens both picked up 2 early fouls which may have changed the Dawgs strategy which I sorta questioned, especially in the 2nd half.  I’ll come back to that in a minute. 

Augsburg was able to close within 1 point at the half 31-30 because of a nice acrobatic twisting trey that Ben Flavin hit in Tim Madson’s face.  Normally that would have been a nice momentum shifter & I thought Augsburg would be able to capitalize on it in the 2nd half, but it was not to be. The Flavin shot must have triggered something in Tim Madson because he absolutely snapped in the 2nd half!  He schooled Flavin & then other Dawg defenders just about every way possible for 21- 2nd half points.  The usual assortment of” how the heck did he do that?” type of shots, twisting turnarounds, treys, draw the bogus contact & get to the FT line 11—11 from the charity stripe.  On any other night I would have been seething – “why are you going away from the big fella- Moberg?!?” but Madson was feeling it & was having one of those Kirby Puckett type of nights.

I agree with papahoops---good post on aug/bu game, drake.    i was late arriving because of a completely unnecessary meeting, but did manage to arrive in time to catch vavra's above mentioned move.  it WAS a classic, and prompted an immediate time-out by coach griese.   and drake, how about laugen's play at about 3:00 to go?--a  drive to the dish ending in an improbable and extremely difficult reverse lay-in at a critical time in the game!
tim madson was a monster.     there is just no other way to describe what he did in the second half.  his mvp performance had the bethel fans up and in to the game all night.  and not previously mentioned, nate robertson (though not shooting the ball well) collected huge rebounds all night and really did an outstanding job of shutting down nate alm with a lot of help from mike moberg.   jon cassens had a strong second half with a dozen points, but needed a bit more help from his mates down the stretch.   the fg shooting percentages for both teams were not great, but there were not a lot of open looks to be had.
i am curious to see what kind of crowd they can shoe-horn in saturday night at ust.   i would bet that pre-game ticket sales are brisk. 

[TommieHoops4Life]

Making excuses for the Gusties losing by 40 last night is absolutely ABSURD. I don't care how bad officiating is, and lord knows i've seen plenty of poorly called games in my day, it doesn't directly have an impact on a team getting blown out of the gym. Last I checked, it's the job of the players to adjust to how a game is being officiated. I won't dispute that UST might get a call or two playing at home, but it does no justice to the game's result. There's usually always an opportunity a team has in any situation to negate a questionable call.

UST came ready to play, Gustavus had a tough night for a class program. 21 turnovers at eight steals in UST's favor... It is what it is, great defense. 15 guys score, you win by 40 and your leading scorer gets 13? That's great team balance. 54 points off the bench, seriously? That is insane.

The Tommies were just better last night, can we all accept that and become fans when they get to the NCAAs? We've done it for everyone else when they won the MIAC. I even cheered for GAC when WW and his crew made their run.

[Willy Wonka]

Making excuses for the Gusties losing by 40 last night is absolutely ABSURD. I don't care how bad officiating is, and lord knows i've seen plenty of poorly called games in my day, it doesn't directly have an impact on a team getting blown out of the gym. Last I checked, it's the job of the players to adjust to how a game is being officiated. I won't dispute that UST might get a call or two playing at home, but it does no justice to the game's result. There's usually always an opportunity a team has in any situation to negate a questionable call.

UST came ready to play, Gustavus had a tough night for a class program. 21 turnovers at eight steals in UST's favor... It is what it is, great defense. 15 guys score, you win by 40 and your leading scorer gets 13? That's great team balance. 54 points off the bench, seriously? That is insane.

The Tommies were just better last night, can we all accept that and become fans when they get to the NCAAs? We've done it for everyone else when they won the MIAC. I even cheered for GAC when WW and his crew made their run.

Easy, big fella. The only one making excuses is AO. Keep things in perspective here.

[onearmedscot]

Any word on the gustie fan in cuffs who was allegedly maced to be subdued and who was screaming obscenities at the St. Paul cops when I happened to walk by?  Classic.

oAs.

[TommieHoops4Life]

WW,

I'm not taking a shot at you, I have better things to do in my life and respect your opinions. AO has been ridiculous on here for a couple weeks now. It just seems like any non-UST fan on here takes whatever shot they can even when the Tommies win. Like last night, it's the official's fault they won by 40? Please, that's ludicrous and we all know it.

I'm not saying that we all need to start bleeding purple and silver next week. Just a little support for them as they will probably be the lone team representing the MIAC next week.

Can TV people do something other than talk to Blake Hoffarber before every game? Try talking to somebody who shoots better than 35 percent.

[AO]

Making excuses for the Gusties losing by 40 last night is absolutely ABSURD. I don't care how bad officiating is, and lord knows i've seen plenty of poorly called games in my day, it doesn't directly have an impact on a team getting blown out of the gym. Last I checked, it's the job of the players to adjust to how a game is being officiated. I won't dispute that UST might get a call or two playing at home, but it does no justice to the game's result. There's usually always an opportunity a team has in any situation to negate a questionable call.

UST came ready to play, Gustavus had a tough night for a class program. 21 turnovers at eight steals in UST's favor... It is what it is, great defense. 15 guys score, you win by 40 and your leading scorer gets 13? That's great team balance. 54 points off the bench, seriously? That is insane.

The Tommies were just better last night, can we all accept that and become fans when they get to the NCAAs? We've done it for everyone else when they won the MIAC. I even cheered for GAC when WW and his crew made their run.

Easy, big fella. The only one making excuses is AO. Keep things in perspective here.

I believe I was latest one to pile on coombe, not the first and probably not the last.  I'm not a tommie or a gustie fan (full disclosure: i was standing in the gustie section and wanted to see #1 go down).  I also tried to make it obvious that the Tommies still deserved to win with the way they played, but it wouldn't have been near a 40 point game without some awful officiating.  They somehow got worse as the lead increased.  games over, Bethel's turn.  

I wouldn't be surprised to see Bethel get a pool C even with a loss on Saturday if enough teams manage not to get upset leaving pool c a little more open.

and I will be behind the Tommies in the ncaa's.

Any word on the gustie fan in cuffs who was allegedly maced to be subdued and who was screaming obscenities at the St. Paul cops when I happened to walk by?  Classic.

oAs.

The word among the gustie faithful was that he wasn't arrested...

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

agreed-- Nice recap of the BU/Aug game, Drake. Rumor has it VOJ was there looking for you, ready to tear off your mask, like the Penguin unmasking Batman. Did you avoid his clutches?

TH4L-- this may shock a lot of people but Im going to agree with WW . The only one attempting to diminish UST's win is a clown who couldnt cut it on a MIAC court and chose to showcase his tremendous talents in that nationally acclaimed powerhouse conference the UMAC (or the UN-MIAC is I prefer to think of it  [Closr to AO-- there is a board for your conference. Try posting your "wisdom" there. You wont have so many disagreeing with you.] 

The officiating was not an issue last night. Execution was. UST exectued well, and made it difficult for GAC to get anything going. UST torching the net (65+%) in the first half probably was a factor too. I loved the buzzer beating shot by Olmstead---an amazing heave, and the highlight of the night for GAC, I'd say.

To echo Pops-- it was classy of Hanson to send word over to the student section, telling them to clean up the act. Hanson is a classy guy and that was obvious by his action.

[TommieFan2012]

How about that sign saying "We want Mike Berken"? Coming into the opposing house and looking for one of the UST fans probably isn't the best idea.

[InRepair]

How about that sign saying "We want Mike Berken"? Coming into the opposing house and looking for one of the UST fans probably isn't the best idea.

Pretty sure you are Mike Berken....and if you are, you know why...

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

welcome to the Board, TommieFan2012

Where are all the Bethel posters? This is the closest they've been to the NCAAs in 18 year, you'd think they'd be popping out of the woodwork.

Historical notes (surprise)-- BU has won the playoffs once, back in 1991 when it was a 4-team affair. They beat UST in the semis and GAC in the championship game. It was their only appearance in the NCAA. BU is the only school that has not won the MIAC regular season title. UST is going for its fourth straight Playoff title and its ninth Playoff championship. No team has ever won 4 Playoff championships in a row. UST (1993-95), GAC (2003-05) and UST (2006-2008) have won 3 in a row. GAC has 9 championships, UST has 8, SJU 5 and Bethel and Concordia have won 1 each. All 11 teams have played in at least one MIAC Playoff. SMU appeared in the first Playoff (1985), and has gone the longest since its last appearance. SMU (0-1) and St Olaf (0-5) are the only teams without a win in the playoffs.  UST, GAC, CAR, BU and SJU have all appeared in the last 4 Playoffs (including 2009). Bethel as been in the last 11 Playoffs, UST the last 10, GAC the last 9 and Carleton the last 5.

[AO]

agreed-- Nice recap of the BU/Aug game, Drake. Rumor has it VOJ was there looking for you, ready to tear off your mask, like the Penguin unmasking Batman. Did you avoid his clutches?

TH4L-- this may shock a lot of people but Im going to agree with WW . The only one attempting to diminish UST's win is a clown who couldnt cut it on a MIAC court and chose to showcase his tremendous talents in that nationally acclaimed powerhouse conference the UMAC (or the UN-MIAC is I prefer to think of it  [Closr to AP-- there is a board for your conference. Try posting your "wisdom" there. You wont have so many disagreeing with you.] 

The officiating was not an issue last night. Execution was. UST exectued well, and made it difficult for GAC to get anything going. UST torching the net (65+%) in the first half probably was a factor too. I loved the buzzer beating shot by Olmstead---an amazing heave, and the highlight of the night for GAC, I'd say.

To echo Pops-- it was classy of Hanson to send word over to the student section, telling them to clean up the act. Hanson is a classy guy and that was obvious by his action.

What is your problem?  So what if i'm trying to diminish the Tommie's win last night?  I didn't see it as a game Gustavus had to hang their head about.  They weren't supposed to win, and they didn't.  What the hell does that have to do with my playing career or the UMAC?

[TommieFan2012]

agreed-- Nice recap of the BU/Aug game, Drake. Rumor has it VOJ was there looking for you, ready to tear off your mask, like the Penguin unmasking Batman. Did you avoid his clutches?

TH4L-- this may shock a lot of people but Im going to agree with WW . The only one attempting to diminish UST's win is a clown who couldnt cut it on a MIAC court and chose to showcase his tremendous talents in that nationally acclaimed powerhouse conference the UMAC (or the UN-MIAC is I prefer to think of it  [Closr to AP-- there is a board for your conference. Try posting your "wisdom" there. You wont have so many disagreeing with you.] 

The officiating was not an issue last night. Execution was. UST exectued well, and made it difficult for GAC to get anything going. UST torching the net (65+%) in the first half probably was a factor too. I loved the buzzer beating shot by Olmstead---an amazing heave, and the highlight of the night for GAC, I'd say.

To echo Pops-- it was classy of Hanson to send word over to the student section, telling them to clean up the act. Hanson is a classy guy and that was obvious by his action.

What is your problem?  So what if i'm trying to diminish the Tommie's win last night?  I didn't see it as a game Gustavus had to hang their head about.  They weren't supposed to win, and they didn't.  What the hell does that have to do with my playing career or the UMAC?

Not hang their heads? no they weren't suppose to win, but 40 points? come on, at least put up a fight! It's like they were defeated before it started.  If you can't hang your head about a 40 point loss in the playoffs what can you hang your head about?

[TommieFan2012]

How about that sign saying "We want Mike Berken"? Coming into the opposing house and looking for one of the UST fans probably isn't the best idea.

Pretty sure you are Mike Berken....and if you are, you know why...

What makes you think I'm Mike Berken.  I'm not, but I do know him, and I witnessed him walk up to the kid with the sign, and the gustie wouldn't beleive that he actually was Mike Berken.  It made us all laugh.